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Sunday, 21 July 2013

The Ladykillers

I saw the funny slapstick play the Ladykillers the other night. A tale of five dopey robbers posing as classical musicians whilst planning their heist in Kings Cross. The leader of the gang lodges with Mrs Witherspoon, an elderly lady with an ailing parrot called the general. She unwittingly becomes involved in the plot and then demands they turn themselves into the police. What are they to do with her? Five less than bright robbers against one little old lady. The ensuing slapstick scenes result in the obvious outcome. Of course Mrs Witherspoon and the General are the winners.

Good for an old fashioned laugh. And an opportunity to see inside one London's lovely Victorian theatres.

Well, if you are going to do a revival of something, it might as well be something genuinely funny and entertaining as "The Ladykillers"-- I only vaguely remember the original movie, I believe it had Alec Guinness in it..NYC revivals are too often something from just ten years ago, --they think it can be dragged out and milked for some more bucks somehow. It is if there is an air of desperation in the theater world in NYC that I don't see in London.